照「錮」人生，何以為繼 — 女性主要家庭照顧者面臨的危機與轉機

Abstract

臺灣社會隨著時代的轉變，家庭人口的組成也有了不小的變化。從以往常見的三代同堂，到了現在的小家庭或頂客雙薪家庭，都展現出當代的文化及社會風氣的不同。同時，臺灣社會也因醫療的進步，以及少子化等綜合性因素影響，使得超高齡化情形愈趨嚴重，連帶造成「長照及家庭照顧」相關問題紛紛浮上水面。

婦女雖然同樣因觀念隨時代的變遷，與過往相比，擁有了更多向外發展、求職以及加薪等機會，但自古以來加諸在女性身上的刻板印象，卻沒有完全消失。諸如育兒、照顧、家事等須花費時間卻無報酬等工作，至今仍然多為女性所須承擔的責任，且即便性別平等意識抬頭，肩負照顧責任的女性與男性人數相比依然懸殊。這也常導致女性花費大量心力投入照顧等勞動時，除難以獲得相對回報外，也容易因長時間的照顧出現身心俱疲、經濟出現問題，或甚至出現「長照悲劇」等狀況。

本文將透過多名女性主要家庭照顧者的個人經驗，從女性成為照顧者的原因、開始照顧後面臨的經濟以及身心負擔等面向，描繪出這些女性在照顧失能，或高齡被照顧者時的過程、照顧時所遇到的困難，以及政府相關單位與女性照顧者本身，是否能夠藉著長照2.0的幫助及個人心態上的轉變，來避免因照顧他人自己卻先倒下的狀況。

With social and cultural changes in Taiwanese society, family composition alters drastically from traditional family group to modern small family or family with double income. However, as medical care advances and social factors like low birth rate persists, Taiwan is facing serious super aged society issues, resulting in long term care and family care problems.

Meanwhile, although women have more opportunities to seek jobs and gain pay raise nowadays, the long-existing stereotype suppressing women does not vanish completely, as unpaid, time-consuming works such as caring for children and house chores are seen as women’s de-facto responsibilities. Therefore, even if women devote considerable amount of time into house works, they are not rewarded equally, with problems including exhaustion, financial crises or even long-term care tragedies occur.

Through the personal experiences of several female family caregivers, the report portraits how they become caregivers, the financial, physical and mental problems they face after becoming caregivers, and the difficulties they encounter while caring for elder family members. Meanwhile, the report discovers if female caregivers could avoid collapsing through the help of Long-term Care Plan 2.0 and also the change of mindset by themselves.